Credit card companies, facing mountains of bad debt from unpaid consumer bills, are working on ways to eke more money out of cardholders. Among the plans are more annual fees, faster interest accruals and lower bonus levels on cash-back and points programs. The moves are intended to maintain revenue streams to offset the expected bad debt.
These plans by credit card issuers come as Congress actively curtails numerous credit-card company business practices in a consumer protection move. Issuers will find it much harder to charge fees and raise interest rates on borrowers, moves that used to create a large segment of industry revenue. The reform bill has cleared the Senate and may be signed into law in the coming days.
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